Advice for Educators Regarding the Use of ChatGPT by Students

Cheating in college is nothing new. What’s different are the new forms of cheating, which are diverse today because of the use of technology and software such as ChatGPT. Students used to rely on classic classroom techniques like scribbling hidden notes somewhere or simply looking at a neighbor’s work. I have blogged about the cheating-as-ethical issue before. 

Many of those tactics appear to have been replaced by artificial intelligence and generative language models like ChatGPT and Google Bard, which offer some services like writing, editing and idea generation for free. Today, technology such as smart watches can give a student a leg up on an exam. Copying a classmate's assignment or plagiarizing parts of published works for a paper are still popular methods of cheating. These actions break down the level playing field that should exist in order to have a fair grading system. Thus, it has ethical implications.

The Consequences of Cheating in College

An article in US News observes that regardless of the cheating method, students are only harming themselves and their learning process, experts say. David Pritchard, a physics professor emeritus at MIT, who has studied academic dishonesty in online classes says: “I know that sounds really cheesy, but I kind of don’t really understand why someone is going to waste their time and money going to college if they don’t want to learn how to write. That’s probably one of the top two to three skills that you gain when you go to college."

Students deprive themselves of a genuine feeling of achievement when they cheat, says Russell Monroe, director of academic integrity at Liberty University in a posting on Meazure Learning. "There’s a sense of dignity in knowing that I got a grade that I earned, whether that’s for an assignment or a class," he says. "You can look at your degree with pride knowing this is something I achieved on my own merit and didn’t have to outsource anything to anyone else or steal or plagiarize."

Some penalties for cheating can have a lasting effect and financial repercussions. They are often less severe for first-time offenders, but colleges keep records of such behavior. Students who continue to cheat and get caught risk failing a class, receiving academic suspension or being expelled from the school, which may come with a note on their transcript explaining why they were dismissed. This designation will likely make it harder to enroll at another college.

As discussed in the US News piece, students who fail a course typically do harm to their grade-point-average (GPA). It could jeopardize eligibility for financial aid or scholarships and lead to academic probation. It can mislead recruiters about the abilities of such students and whether they can manage the expectations of a particular position in their firms. They may be unprepared and lack needed knowledge and skills.

Views of Students

The views about cheating using ChatGPT differ for students and educators. In “1 in 4 companies have already replaced workers with ChatGPT,” survey results reported by Resume Builder and updated on March 27, 2023 show that ChatGPT, or similar AI applications, are increasingly being used by college students. The results include the following:

• 47% of college students have used ChatGPT or a similar AI application.
• 50% of those who have used ChatGPT have used it to complete assignments or exams (22% of all college students in the survey).
• 57% do not intend to use it or continue using it to complete their schoolwork.
• 31% say their instructors, course materials, or school honor codes have explicitly prohibited AI tools.
• 54% say their instructors have not openly discussed the use of AI tools like ChatGPT.
• 60% report that their instructors or schools haven’t specified how to use AI tools ethically or responsibly.
• 61% think AI tools like ChatGPT will become the new normal.
• 51% agree that using AI tools to complete assignments and exams counts as cheating and plagiarism while 20% disagree. The rest are neutral.
• 40% say that using AI defeats the purpose of education.                                                         

Views of Educators                                                    

Educators should adjust their expectations and not prevent students from using ChatGPT. As the saying goes: "That ship has sailed." Educators must clarify their expectations regarding student use of ChatGPT. It is important to be explicit and transparent about the limitations of its use. A statement to that effect should be included in the course syllabus, such as whether it can be used for assignments and research papers. Universities should have clear policies that address the use of ChatGPT in the classroom and by students in completing assignments and exams. Academic integrity must underlie these policies.

The main issue for educators is that ChatGPT has the potential to facilitate cheating by students without being detected. This could erode critical thinking skills and undermine the fundamental values of higher education.

Some educators, like David Epstein, insist that using ChatGPT is unethical, in part because each time the same question is posed, it produces somewhat unique answers which makes detection difficult. Others insist that it is simply another form of technology, like Google or Wikipedia, and it increases efficiency in obtaining information. The  technology can go wrong, pick up unreliable or even wrong material and produce it as fact. The output from ChatGPT must be evaluated, and a judgment should be made whether it is true and dependable and useful for the question to be answered.

Not all educators believe that using ChatGPT is a bad thing. Writing for Scientific American, John Villasenor tells his students in his class at the UCLA School of Law that they can use ChatGPT in their writing assignments. He contends that the time when a person had to be a good writer to produce good writing ended in 2022, and educators need to adapt. He suggests that rather than banning students from using labor-saving and time-saving AI writing tools, educators should teach students to use them ethically and productively. Of course, the devil is in the details as to whether ChatGPT is used ethically—or not.

What Are Educators Doing About ChatGPT?

Some professors are phasing out take-home, open-book assignments — which became a dominant method of assessment in the pandemic but now seem vulnerable to chatbots. They are instead opting for in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams.

Generative AI systems like ChatGPT can give inaccurate or misleading results because of prompts that are too vague but also from poor data sources. The limitation of this technology means it can experience problems with relatively simple queries. Educators must consider that the bot might provide two different answers to the same query, and the answers may even change over time.

Data security and privacy are critical issues to consider in deciding whether to use ChatGPT. Given its access to vast amounts of data including sensitive financial information, there is a risk that this data could be compromised, either through hacking or other means. Proper security measures should be developed to protect the data from unauthorized access.

Implications for Education

The main issue for educators is that ChatGPT has the potential to facilitate cheating by students without being detected. This has implications for academic integrity and could erode critical thinking skills and undermine the fundamental values of higher education. Educators should be aware that software, such as Turnitin's plagiarism checker tools, can assist in evaluating independent work by students and determine whether they have relied solely on ChatGPT. 

Some professors are phasing out take-home, open-book assignments — which became a dominant method of assessment in the pandemic but now seem vulnerable to chatbots. They are instead opting for in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams.

ChatGPT can facilitate using advanced teaching methodologies, promote interactive learning, and develop students’ critical thinking skills. ChatGPT can be used to solve complex problems, generate summaries and reports, make recommendations, and conduct data analysis. However, the bot may not collect information from reliable sources. Hence, the information may be outdated, incorrect, or biased.

Educators must be sensitive to possible misinformation and biases that can taint the reliability of information provided by ChatGPT. They should be aware of possible overreliance on AI-generated content that can inhibit critical thinking and creativity, and lead to plagiarism and other violations of academic integrity.

Rather than banning ChatGPT, educators should find ways to incorporate it into the curricula in ways that enhance the learning process, not replace it. ChatGPT is here to stay.

Posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on March 18, 2025. You can sign up for his newsletter and learn more about his activities at: https://www.stevenmintzethics.com/.